WASHINGTON DC - Cambodian filmmaker Chhay Bora, who debuted in 2010 with “Lost Loves,” has produced a new film that explores the impacts in the country of prostitution and human trafficking.

The new film is an attempt to inform Cambodians, especially those in rural areas, about the dangers of sending their daughters to work in Phnom Penh or abroad.

“Many people in the rural areas have often been deceived by a small number of people who told them their daughters would work in a restaurant, when in fact they were forced into prostitution,” Chhay Bora told VOA Khmer in a Skype interview.

“We want to send them an important message, and that message is that you have to be smart, you have to know who the recruiters really are, where they actually live, and how to contact them,” he said.

Families should look for local jobs that may be better than jobs far from home, he said.

Another important message of the film is to encourage Cambodians to respect and value the lives of others, and to not purchase young girls at the cost of their future, he said.

“We also do not want the world to think of Cambodia as a sex industry,” he said. “We want the world to think that we have a respectful culture and civilization. People should come to visit Cambodia as real tourists, not as sex tourists.”

Chhay Bora is currently in the US, attending the Palm Springs International Film Festival to screen “Lost Loves.”

Around 600 years ago, the people living in the remote Cardamom Mountains in southern Cambodia placed the bones of their dead in large jars on steep ledges hidden deep in the jungle.
Ten years after discovering a large grave site full of jars, researchers are still baffled as to why ancient Cambodians used jars in this way. AP reports from Koh Kong province, Cambodia.